The Many Faces of Cavman

A look at how UVA’s mascot has changed over time

by Erin O’Hare

In 1925 “The Cavalier Song,” written in 1923 by then-student Lawrence Haywood Lee Jr., was chosen in a College Topics contest as UVA’s best fight song. The song inspired a moniker for the athletic teams that stuck: The Cavaliers.

A few years later, a caricature of the “Virginia Cavalier” appeared in a Washington Post advertisement. He is moustached and wearing boots, widely cuffed pants, a jacket and long gloves and a feather stuck into a wide-brimmed hat; his sabre is drawn. Since then, the Cavalier mascot’s overall look has remained the same, but some of the details—most notably his facial hair—have evolved. Here are just a few of the many faces of the Cavalier.

1933
An ad in the Washington Post featured this caricature of the Virginia Cavalier fighting a VMI cadet. The ad promised that the results of the Oct. 28, 1933, football game would be printed in the next day’s paper.

1937
Prohibition ended just a few years before the printing of this decal. The Cavalier has sheathed his sabre in favor of a mint julep.

1947
On a postcard for the 1947 Harvard versus Virginia football game, a Cavalier dressed in head-to-toe blue shakes hands with Harvard’s mascot, a crimson-clad pilgrim.

1960s
From the feather in his hat to the trim on his coat, the confident Cavalier on this decal is decidedly showier than his predecessors.

1987
The costumed Cavalier—Cavman—debuted during the 1984 football season and remains the official mascot of the Virginia Cavaliers. Both the costume and the features of the large character head have changed many times over the last 30 years.

Undated
This undated mascot wears one of the Cavalier’s fancier costumes (check out that lace neck ruffle) and least-friendly facial expressions.

1995
One of a variety of Cavalier bobbleheads made over the last two decades, this one wears a simple costume and a full beard.

1997
While pepping up the crowd at a basketball game,this Cavman looks more “pirate” than “cavalier.”

1997
Same costume, slightly different character head.

1998
This plush Cavman is dressed in the same orange-and blue-striped garb as the late-’80s/early-’90s mascot.

2001
The Cavalier of the early 2000s returned to the striped pants and puffed sleeves of the 1980s.

2006
In the 2000s, the mascot’s suit was changed to a blue-and-orange outfit with the V-sabres logo on the chest.

Present Day
Today’s Cavman has a more sculpted, cartoonish face and it looks like he’s been hitting the gym—he’s more muscular than ever.

Comments (4)

T. Rick on 08/14/2017

it’s past time for a re-evaluation of this mascot and the proKKK history of UVA after the attrocities of the AltRight in Charlottesville

JT Taylor on 04/25/2015

I was the Cavalier mascot after Christmas in 1982 until our last game vs. Maryland in 1983. Back in the day, the mascot was a student without the giant head, just our face, etc. Do you have any pictures from this era? I’d be most interested in those of myself, Ronnie Goodstein, the Cavalier in 1980.

Trivial note: I played football from 1979-82, graduated in 1983. No doubt, I was the only student-athlete to become the Cavalier mascot. I truly had a blast. Many stories to tell…

Brad Peaseley on 04/15/2015

Why cannot you so-called progressives resist injecting your politics into everything? Have you people really reached the point where you judge a piece of music according to whether its composer shared your ideology?

We don’t see snide commentary from non-leftists when the vile “professor” Julian Bond—or the misogynist Edward Kennedy—is mentioned in this publication.

Tim Jarrett on 03/29/2015

While I too would like to forget the Cavalier Song’s co-author, we should note that its words were written by another Virginia student, Fulton Lewis, Jr., who later became a prominent American conservative radio broadcaster from the 1930s to the 1960s. It was Lee’s lyric that gave the song, and therefore our mascot, his name, but Lewis’s music that is played by the band at football games.

We may prefer to forget the connection to our Cavaliers of a broadcaster who backed Senator Joe McCarthy even after he was proven to be a witch-hunting phony, and who the Washington Post called in 1987 “one of the most unprincipled journalists ever to practice the trade,” but we should remember. History and our University are at their most interesting when we acknowledge their most uncomfortable facets.